So who was he? Iluvatar? Just some Maiar? A space alien like Shelob that snuck into the Middle-Earth?

So who was he? Iluvatar? Just some Maiar? A space alien like Shelob that snuck into the Middle-Earth?

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A singing funny man Tolkien slipped in there for his kids and gave god powers just cause

You can't use out-of-universe explanations in-universe.

Tom was father time and his wife was mother earth. They are the personification of the undying forces.

Well then there's absolutely no explanation what Tom Bombadil is. The out of universe explanation is the only one there is and it's the reason Tolkien put him in the story. Everything else is speculation and theory since Tolkien never said

/thread

but is a pretty good answer

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Elrond said that Tom could kick Sauron's ass all by himself, but he doesn't care what happens outside of his forest so he would never agree to do that.

terrence malick

But as far as all the other characters know they only had any real power within their realm.
Why would they be so restricted if they were omnipotent?

He just didn't give a fuck.

I always just assumed he was an avatar of sorts to middle earth itself.
Tied to the land but could do whatever the fuck he felt like within.

>if they were omnipotent
said who?

Looks like Hillbilly Jim

This thread now belongs to Sauron.

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woof woof

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Tolkien stated that he intentionally made Bombadil a mysterious and ambiguous character. He felt it was something that every mythology should have.
My personal thoughts are that Bombadil is the opposite to whatever Ungoliant is.

>A space alien like Shelob
What? If anything I would think she was more extradimetional demon than alien. Thus Tom would be kore like an angel from a higher realm. I never emember Tolkien having stuff about other planets.

isn't he supposed to be father nature or some shit

The Middle Earth is a planet

Middle-Earth is a continent.

No it's a continent. The planet it Arda.

one does not simply write a godlike singing man into a book

>Everything else is speculation and theory since Tolkien never said
I thought it went further than that: wasn't Tolkien pretty explicit in saying that there wasn't supposed to be any explanation for Bombadil? The idea being that trying to force an explanation on everything within the Universe just ends up robbing it of its mystery, or some such?

I'm pretty sure the opposite is true. If he cared to put his mind to it, Tom would be able to resist Mordor longer than anyone else. But it's also stated that he wouldn't be able to hold out indefinitely, and that Sauron would be victorious and reclaim the ring. It's just so much easier that Tom wouldn't give a fuck and probably lose the ring.

which is our planet just in the past
LOTR is a history book you know

Tom wasn't omnipotent. Sauron would have eventually beaten him too if he won the war.

So is Conan

Tom is story itself, a meta-narrative machina

Is it not Arda that is the planet?
I thought middle earth was just the regions detailed in lord of the rings, like Rohan, Gondor and Mordor and such?

no

Actually, the regions depicted in LotR are only the Western portion of ME, but yes, ME is not the entire planet.

I suspect Tom was a balrog that repented and became like a born again Christian. Withywindel bitch

Its a genuine mystery, you can speculate all you want, all of those options you give are viable. I like to imagine he is simply a manifestation of nature in humanoid form, like a spirit that just is, and looks after the old forest. That is why he is eternal, and as old as the world itself and why he is unconcerned and unaffected by the ring, as he is beyond everything and will exist as long as the world does.

The point is, is Tolkien liked to leave things unexplained, he liked mysteries in his work. He understood that good writer doesn't explain everything because then it loses its magic and world seems smaller. The fact there are these unexplained beings in his world gives enhances the illusion in the reader's mind that this is real world. Just like our real world we are ignorant of great many things as one would be if Middle Earth is real.

But he did

Yes

No. Conan is actually set in our far future.

He's a vestigial character from an earlier legend.

Keep in mind Tolkien wrote the stories as though they were actual legends from within the cultures of Middle-Earth.

shut the fuck up nerd

Why compare Tom to a run of the mill giant spider. even if she is the daughter of Tolkein's Galactus.

No, there's literally an appendix by R.E.H. himself explaining how the several Conan tribes and kingdoms became ours.

OP probably meant Ungoliant.

he's just a whimsical fairy tale guy, rpg-obsessed neckbeards forget that LOTR is based on poetry and classical literature

government coverup

A Sith Lord?

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Tom Bombadil was a undefined hero character from stories Tolkien made up and told his children.

Toms power in the Tolkien’s imagination was absolute but Tom didn’t give any fucks about anything outside his forest.

Tom Bombadil was like role players first ever character that then cameos in every campaign that DM runs. Yea sure he could solo the big bad and knows everything the DM knows but if he acted he’d just ruin the campaign, so the DM drops him as an Easter egg for players that remember the character. In LotR it was an Easter egg for Tolkien’s own children.